This invention relates to the physical characteristics of carpet, in particular to the qualitative sense of substance in the pile. It will be understood that quality in carpeting will relate in part to the amount of fiber contained in the pile, that is, a carpet containing more fiber for each square yard (or square meter) is both more costly and longer lasting. If one could enhance the impression that a carpet was dense and contained a greater amount of fiber, then the carpet would have greater appeal to the customer, while reducing the cost to the manufacturer. The present inventors have discovered that application of certain polymers (previously disclosed in co-pending U.S. Pat. No, 07/649,501) to carpet fibers is capable of enhancing the sense of bulk and hand relative to other related materials.